Tutorial How to play a custom map in the CS:GO beta

Right now, playing a map made by anyone other than Valve is a bit of a pain. But hey, it's not that much of a pain, and it's worth it too!

The first thing you need to know is that in its current state, you cannot download a custom map from a community server. You will get some kind of error when you try this. Therefore, you will need to download the map from another source and drag the bsp (and nav if it is included) into your maps folder. Here is my location as an example. Notice that it is a bit different than you may be used to with CS:S and is in the common folder as opposed to the one with your account name.

Once you've got the maps, you will be able to play them by typing map de_map_example in your console(~). However, you will find that you can only play with 1 other bot. Any more than that will not work! Thankfully, there is a solution to this!

Go to your csgo folder again. Here's the directory for anybody out there who has trouble pressing the back button in their maps folder:

In this folder, there is a file called gamemodes.txt. Open it up with notepad, notepad++, or whatever floats your boat. You can even try opening it with paint and let me know how that goes.

Once you have opened the file, you will need to add a big wall o' text to it. Scroll down to the bottom, and then add the following text. I will use one of my maps both as an example and as a clever way of self-advertising!

Obviously (or not if you're stupid), you should replace the map name with whatever map you are using in the three cases it shows up. Also, the map in this example only has 10 spawn points, but if you wanted more than that (like if there are 30 spawn points since the beta just got an upgrade) you could simply change that number to 30. I honestly have no idea if it makes any difference, but a higher number would seem to be a safe bet.

Now you should be able to play custom maps with others! Try joining a server with the custom map you just worked so hard to get working, or solo it out with some bots. Currently, there are not too many populated servers out there with custom maps because of all this hassle.

I made this because I know some people have had a problem getting custom maps to work. Hopefully this helps out any damsels in distress out there.

This tutorial will (hopefully soon) be useless and outdated as soon as Valve makes it easier to play custom maps!

Seems a bit moot at this point as there are barley any servers running customs. I think there is one semi popular surf server. Also, you can download maps from servers as I did with that surf map. There is a chance you will get an error, but if you retry once or twice it works out

Seems a bit moot at this point as there are barley any servers running customs. I think there is one semi popular surf server. Also, you can download maps from servers as I did with that surf map. There is a chance you will get an error, but if you retry once or twice it works out

If you want to play a game with bots, though, you will need to edit gamemodes.txt, otherwise you can only play with 1 bot. Also, downloading maps from a server simply isn't reliable at this point. I'm hoping Valve will fix all this soon...

If you want to play a game with bots, though, you will need to edit gamemodes.txt, otherwise you can only play with 1 bot. Also, downloading maps from a server simply isn't reliable at this point. I'm hoping Valve will fix all this soon...

I agree. What I really want to see from CSGO beta at this point is just more people. Doesn't seem like there are more than 100-300 on at any point. I want people to populate armsrace servers :O